Corroboration Is Key To Successful Family Tree Research

The excitement of discovering new members of our family tree is a highlight of most people's searches.  New discoveries usually bring more areas of the family to explore and more questions too!

It's important that before you embark on these new avenues, you check that your research can be corroborated or if you have not done this, how you can check that it is accurate.

Two stories come to mind with information that we have been asked to investigate which illustrate in different ways, why it is important to check information is accurate.

The first involves someone who was working back through the generations when they hit a brick wall.  They had little knowledge of one branch of the family but with an usual surname and a known location for where the family had lived at one time, they had decided to check birth records for their great grandfather who they thought was born towards the end of the 19th century.

Sure enough, they found a record for the correct name and father's name (they had not known the mother's name) and in the year that they were expecting to find the birth.  It had taken place in the neighbouring town to which they had known the family had lived at a later date.  Sensibly, they checked this unusual surname for anyone else living in the area but the only details that came up in that area was for the birth certificate of a sibling so all seemed well.  

They asked Kin Tree to look further into this as their great, great grandparents had come from Ireland and after hitting a brick wall, they wanted our expertise in Irish research to help reveal the next chapter of their family's story.  

Our first job is always to review the information that we have been given. We had asked why they were sure this was the birth of their great grandfather and they of course explained about the location.

Without that definite link, we decided to look further into their great grandfather's life and given his date of birth, we looked for a World War 1 record for him and discovered that he had died in 1917.  This was a key fact as the family's actual great grandfather had died in the late 1950s! 

We did track down the right family for them however and indeed their Irish family too.  This shows why it is important to not make assumptions!

The second example was based on a genuine mistake by a family rather than an assumption however it was compounded by accepting that someone else's family tree was accurate when it was not.

This time, there had been lots of work done on the tree in question including documents to corroborate the information.  Kin Tree had been contacted to see if we could take the tree further back or make suggestions for further investigation.  We were reviewing the information and checking it for accuracy and overall it was fine until we got to the early 1860s.  A mother had died in the same year that her baby was born, let's call the baby Mary Smith.  The family had noticed that the mother had not appeared in the 1871 census and checked for a death and found that the mother had indeed died the year that Mary was born.

The mother's name was quite common and she had been born before statutory records. Unfortunately they had been unable to track down a birth certificate for her.  It seemed too that the couple must have been married before statutory records had started too as they could find no record there either.

Next, the family turned to the family tree hints and suggestions that appear on some of the more popular family tree sites.  These can be great for swapping information and finding new branches of your family tree. There, they found someone else who had Mary's details and the details of Mary's descendants on their own tree. A distant relative it seemed! These matched the family's own research into Mary's descendants. 

As luck would have it, there were also details of Mary's mother and her ancestors.  Our family even went to the bother of contacting the other tree owner to find out how they had tracked down Mary's mother's birth,. This led to them realising that they had missed a vital record that had been there all the time.  The other tree holder was happy to swap information too.

What we discovered though when cross referencing the information was that the birth certificate that had been found for Mary belonged to a different Mary Smith!  Coincidence meant that they had the same name and their parents had the same names too.  (Mary's parents' names had come from Mary's marriage certificate). Also, both babies' mothers died when they were infants.  

The problem was that our family had only checked if there was a death for Mary's mother but had not taken a note of the specific details of the death.  When we checked it properly, we found that the lady in question had died the year that our Mary was born but some months before Mary's birth! The other family tree listing Mary's family incorrectly had made the same mistake it seemed - although they later said that they had copied the details from another tree and had not checked themselves!  

Both these cases show us the need to check information carefully and to not make assumptions.

So this reminds us to 

1. Check all records and take copies or notes of the details.
2. Don't assume that the first record you come to that seems to fit is the correct one unless you have overwhelming supporting evidence.
3. Fill in all details of these records into your family tree. 
4. Cross reference to highlight any anomalies. A family tree programme can help to flag these up.
5. Always review your information before moving on to the next task.
6. Be honest with yourself about your information as otherwise you could be wasting time and money barking up the wrong family tree!
7. If you are looking online at other people's family tree information remember that it may be inaccurate so check the details yourself. 
8. Contact Kin Tree for a review of your information or for further help on where to go next with your family tree.

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How To Write About Your Own Life

Whilst researching your family history is in itself an absorbing and interesting hobby, most people also hope that they information that they have collated will be passed on down through the generations.

It can be easy to forget about your own personal story or feel that you have nothing to contribute. Don't forget though that as you are interested in your ancestors' lives, descendants will be interested in your own story.  Although we might record the big events in life and find them easy to document, it is often the small things that you find out that make your ancestors' stories really come to life.

So how do you start to do this in a meaningful way? What to write about and what to leave out?  What if you don't feel confident in writing about your own life?

A great way to start is by thinking about one of your ancestors who you did not get a chance to meet and think about what you would have liked to ask them if you had been given a chance.  

Write down a list of questions - it doesn't matter if it's a long or a short list. Sometimes it can be difficult to think of questions but usually once you get started, it gets easier as ideas start to flow.  You can try to write your list all in one go or over a period of time. If you like to write electronically then write your questions using this format and if you prefer pen and paper then use those.  The thing is to feel as comfortable as possible with the format.

After this and in your own time, start to answer these questions but for yourself.  If you can't think of something to write about a specific question then leave it.  Most of us can write down a few words at least about places where we have lived or worked.  It doesn't need to be a long piece of writing if you don't like writing much.  Anything that you write will be precious to your descendants.

It can also be good for inspiration to think about how things have changed in your lifetime.  The rate at which technology is changing our lives for example, is surprising and any observations that you make about changes that you have seen would be interesting to future family historians.

Radio Times listing

So what kind of observations might you make? 

It could be something as simple as tv schedules.  It is not long since everyone relied on a weekly magazine or magazines to check out what their next week's viewing would be for example.

Now with television guides available on your television set, catch up television and guides and news accessed online in a variety of ways, it would be interesting for future generations to know how much these magazines were a part of every day life. 

Your descendants will treasure your thoughts and memories even if they are simply a few notes on a scrap of paper.  However, it is also possible to expand on this by writing it up or by getting it written up into a fuller piece. Even if you don't have personal photos etc to add to this, a little research can easily be done to add some images.

At Kin Tree we are experts in writing up family stories so even if you are only looking for some advice or guidance, please get in touch for a chat.

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Why Cross Referencing Is Important

OK, we are going to say it.... Some family research is not exciting!  However, we are going to qualify that by saying, the bits that might seem less fun can actually turn out to be the most exciting as they can solve a few puzzles.

The bits that can seem less exciting are often when you need to write down all your facts and cross reference them.  It can be, for example that you have all the birth, marriage and death records for a couple and have found all their children too.  You may have also checked some census records and they always seem to live in the same place.  It may seem pointless to write down the details from every census but it can be remarkable what you find.

This can be particularly helpful where there has been some unclear handwriting on a record.  Perhaps a name that is unclear on one record shows up more legibly in another. This can be of particular importance when it is pre statutory BMD records.  There can be little information on church records, especially about women.  Maybe you have recorded a marriage and the woman's mother's name is not clear.  you take a stab at it but without an accurate name, you can look no further for records. At another time, you record a census record where an unexpected name turns up.  By cross referencing, you can check if it relates to the name that was unclear.  Even thought the census record should record the relationship with the head of the household, it is very common for these to be recorded incorrectly or even transcribed incorrectly. 

It is not simply handwriting that is a good reason for cross referencing. One one occasion, we had a census record where a child's birth was recorded.  Before the census, the child's father had died.  We had not found a record of his death but his widow had remarried and had noted that she was a widow on her new marriage certificate.  Later, we had tracked down her late husband's death (he had died abroad) and through cross checking, we realised that he could not be the father of the last child as he was dead before this child could be conceived.  We had not looked further into this child's birth at this stage as it was the sibling of the ancestors that we were researching.  It turned out to be an interesting story, if sad.  The child had been born in the poorhouse but through these records, we were able to piece what had happened to the family after the father's death.  Only by cross referencing all the information on this family were we able to piece this story together fully.

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Keep Asking Those Family Members!

Every family tree begins with the information that you already know and normally the next step is to ask other family members for details.  Once you have these then it may seem like you will have exhausted your family's knowledge but nothing could be further from the truth.

At the start, we tend to ask for names and dates of birth, marriages and deaths.  If our relatives have documents or photos this is great too and most are happy to allow copies to be made.

People often think they are giving you everything they have but will later find, when clearing out a box or things in the loft, that they have all sorts of other items that can help to build your family's story.

There is normally someone in the family that is good at keeping family information so ask in your family about who is normally the best source of information. However ask everybody for information as everyone has their own experiences and knowledge that is unique to them. If anyone in the family passes away then sensitively ask if you could look at any family information that is found if a family member is going through paperwork, photographs or other items.

Old letters, diaries, address books, jewellery and medals are common finds from a clear out of a loft when a family is moving home or simply having a tidy up.  Sometimes there will be more unusual items too. All these items can help to build the details of your ancestors.  At Kn Tree we are expert in explaining the significance of objects from the everyday to the unusual and what they tell us about your family.

In amongst this treasure trove, it is also common to find more documents such as certificates also.  These things are often stored away carefully but are also often forgotten about until they are unearthed for some other reason.  So it is good to ask your relatives to remember your family tree research if they later come across anything related to your ancestors.

Older relatives are good sources of information on family life and other information however people often remark that these relatives can be reluctant to talk or have seemed to have forgotten any details.  Sometimes there may have been a family rift or an event and they do not want to discuss it or anything in relation to it. Never press on a particular issue but of course, it can also be that you do not know of an issue so don't know there may be a sensitive point.  

There are ways to chat though where you will not be stepping on toes and this can help with those relatives that are simply not great conversationalists too!

Try to avoid the type of question which makes it easy to say yes or no.  For example, do not ask

Did you like school?

Instead, you could ask

What was school like when you were there?

Similarly, if you want to know more about home life then a question asking about home life might not get much of a response if it was not happy or they are someone who is not much of a talker but by saying

What was it like in your neighbourhood when you were growing up?

This can be a great starting point to find out more about family life.  The social history of a family brings it to life more than simple names and dates. 

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How Social Media Can Help Your Family Tree Research

Social media can help you in your family tree research  in a number of ways. 

1. Keeping You Up-To-Date

Genealogy sites such as Kin Tree, Ancestry and Find My Past have Facebook and Twitter pages along with blogs where you can keep abreast of all the latests news.  Even if you don't use them for anything else, it's worth checking these out and connecting with their pages t make sure that you don't miss out.

2.Tracking Down Living Relations

If you have an idea of where an unknown relative is based then a search on social media can be very fruitful. It also has the advantage of allowing them to check you out and to see you are a genuine person and not a scammer.

3. Surname Groups

Social media is full of groups who share the same surname.  This can be helpful in a number of ways.  Firstly, you can find out about the surname and where people are located in the world. Secondly, you may find a family connection. Lastly, other people researching the same surname may be able to give you pointers or have information on the family name that is useful to you.

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4. Historical and Geographical Groups

There are many social media pages out there who are interested in events or places with which your ancestors were connected.  most are friendly and helpful and can fill you in on details that you may not have found anywhere else.

5. Answering questions

Try putting in a search on Twitter for example, for something for which you have questions. In this example (below) the phrase "Seaforth Highlanders" was used and below gives you a flavour of the results.  You can select to look for people called "Seaforth Highlanders", where the phrase is used (as we did) or to look for images.

Bonnie Saunders ‏@Glasstreasures21 Sep

Here is today's feature for you. This is The Seaforth Highlanders Badge Plate. I hope you all enjoy and... http://fb.me/2s3HTQSFK 

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•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite 

We Are The Dead ‏@WeAreTheDead20 Sep

Pte. Eric Oswald Cleugh (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada). Dec. 27, 1942.

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Valour and Gallantry ‏@VC_GC3 Sep

VC: Lance Corporal Robert McBeath (Seaforth Highlanders) First World War http://bit.ly/Xy46jh  #VC

Retweeted by ScotsMilitaryHistory

6. Ask A Community

There are many social media communities out there or a variety of topics where you can simply ask a question.  People are generous with their help and will be glad to help you find information or point you in the right direction.

At Kin Tree, we are experts in the use of social media so please don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

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Tracking Down That Elusive Ancestor

Anyone tracing their family tree will have come across that problem where you know that you should be able to find an ancestor in a particular index but they don't seem to be there. Census records are a common area where ancestors seem to "disappear" for example.

How can we find these elusive ancestors and why might they disappear off the records?

The are common reasons why our ancestors might disappear.

• Spelling - Names were normally written down by the person who was officially recording an event. Different people might use different spelling variations.  There could be a mistake simply because the person recording information misheard a name.

• AKA - Often people were not known by their birth name, The name on the birth certificate may say, for example, Jane Mary Paterson. On records such as the census on some occasions she may have been recorded as Jane however if she was known as Mary, it could have been this that is recorded or many people called Jane were known as Jean, Jeannie or Janet.  She may also appear with a completely different first name because although she was registered as Jane, she gets called Anne, for example.

• Transcription errors - Old handwriting may not be clear so it is easy for errors to be made with transcriptions.  People are not perfect and transcriptions are often done by volunteers who are giving their best efforts. Sometimes people simply make a mistake.

• Indexes - Sites use different methods of indexing for the same information so how you might extract the information in one will not work on another or would bring  forward some results that are the same and some that are different.

So how might we find them?

• Using wildcards, soundex and all the other search tools can help widen the search but can also bring different results depending on what site that you use. Sites will often give you variations on the spelling of a name but try the same search on different sites and you will come up with a different set of results according to which names they think match closely enough to your original enquiry. 

• Finding out information about your ancestor from other sources may shed some light on where they were or the name by which they were known.

• Sometimes it is a case of sitting down and going through pages of information page by page.

• It's important to check a number of sites to find an elusive ancestor or to cross reference your results where the name varies from what you were expecting. This can be expensive of course as most websites cost money to access and time consuming if you are unaware of the best strategies.

How do you cut down on costs and use the best strategies?

At Kin Tree, we subscribe and use a number of websites so paying for an hour or two of our time will cost a lot less than subscribing to all the sites yourself.  Also, being expert researchers we know the best strategies to get results. Contact us for a no obligation chat or further information at:

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Bringing Your Family History To Life

Tracing your family tree is an absorbing past time. Often it starts with a desire to find out how far back you can trace your family but along the way you will also start to root out other interesting information about your ancestors. You soon realise that they are more than a date in history.

There comes a point when you will want to gather all the information together and write it down.  However, then thoughts generally turn into how to make it more interesting than simply a set of dates.

Look at this example of a fictitious person called William MacDonald.

We could have an entry that said simply -

William MacDONALD was born on 7 November 1897 at 23 Example Street, Govan. He was the son of James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN.  He married Janet FRASER on 22 June 1922 in Parish Kirk, Glasgow. He died on 17 August 1971 at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow.  His home address then was 154 Sample Street, Glasgow.

However by adding in more detail on these bare details, we can build up the picture of William's life. 

We could write about his birth - 

William was the fifth of seven children born to James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN.  He was born at the family home, 23 Example Street, Govan on 7 November 1897. 

Then by adding in some more details that we have from poor relief records, we can add in -

William was the fifth of seven children born to James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN. He was born at the family home, 23 Example Street, Govan on 7 November 1897. The family lived in a tenement flat and were on the second floor in the left hand side flat.  

So we now have facts about William from his birth certificate, the 1901 census and poor relief records (from a later date) which described their flat. The next step that we can take is to add details about his life through putting the family into the historical context of the time. This can be done in a number of ways, for example by researching the area in which William lived and the wider social context of the times.

Mixing all these elements together we have -

William was the fifth of seven children born to James MacDONALD and Mary RANKIN. He was born at the family home, 23 Example Street, Govan on 7 November 1897. The family lived in a tenement flat and were on the second floor in the left hand side flat. 

For William and the rest of his family, the kitchen was the centre of activity in old tenement flats. William's family had two rooms. Beds, sink, coal bunker, cupboards, pulley, fireplace and cooking range would all be crammed into them. The cast iron kitchen range was standard in tenement buildings used both as a heating and a cooking tool. 

A large cast iron kettle normally stood on the hob keeping the water warm. Every effort was made to keep the fire alight over night, especially in winter. This was done by saving old tea-leaves and potato peelings, mixed with dross (coal dust) and cinders and placing them on the fire before going to bed.

Outside toilets were a common feature of Govan tenements until the late 19th century. Subsequently tenements were built with a toilet or renovated to include a shared water closet on each stair landing. Often too, the only running water was an outside tap that was used by all the residents.

By adding in these details, we are already bring William's world to life.  We can imagine how it would be to live in his home.  It can be quite daunting to build up these details however they do make the difference between a simple list of facts and an exciting and interesting book about our ancestors' lives.  

At Kin Tree we are not only experienced and qualified in genealogy but also in history so we have a wide knowledge base to build a picture of your family's past.  We have the experience and knowledge to draw together the genealogical facts and present them in a way that brings your family's story to life.  We are also experienced at printing family history books so we can present your book to a professional standard.

 If you have any questions on bring your family's story to life or on printing a family history book then please get in touch for a no obligation chat at:

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Great Digital Image Resource For Scotland

If you are looking for digital images relating to your Scottish family history then your first stop should be Scran

The Scran Trust hosts around 370,000 images, movies and sounds which come from archives, museums, galleries and the media on its website.  It's funded through the Scottish Government, subscriptions and sales of services.

The site is easy to navigate.  For the family historian there are lots of images available of local towns and cities.  Similarly, there are images of subjects such as occupations, migration and historic maps.  There are many other sections too or you can simply put in a straight forward search into their search engine.

This is only a very small glimpse of what is available on the site.  The best way to find out what is there is to go and look for yourself. Access can be gain in a number of ways. It's free to browse thumbnails of the images but to gain full access there are a number of was in which this can be done.

• If you are a school pupil or student in Scotland, there is a good chance that you will have free access to the whole site. Check with your school, college or university librarian.
• Local libraries often have accesses. This might be within the library itself and many have remote access from home.  Check with your local librarian for details of access.
• Subscription - It is inexpensive to join Scran either for 6 months or a year.
• Buy individual images.

The site has a wealth of material on Scottish life so it is of interest to not only family historians but to anyone with an interest in Scotland.  Why not give it a browse and if your local library does not give you access then why not ask them to subscribe to the site.

For more information on using online sites, please contact us for a free no obligation chat at:

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What Can Hospital Records Reveal About Your Ancestors?

Death certificates can reveal a tremendous amount of information about your ancestors but they need not be the final piece of the jigsaw.  If you are lucky then an obituary may appear or you may find a will but even without either of these things, there is a great way to look for further information.

If your ancestor died in hospital then it is worth investigating if there is a record of their hospital stay. Depending on the country in which you live there may be some restrictions on what you can access and how much time must have elapsed before you can access the records however it is always worth checking with the archivists for the latest information as data protection laws are often updated.  

So what information can you find? It will vary even within the same hospital - from the briefest of details perhaps regarding your ancestor's admission to hospital to full clinical notes or a post mortem.  The great news though is that even with the briefest of details, these can easily reveal some interesting facts and open up a new way to investigate a branch of your tree.

A good example of this was Edinburgh Royal Infirmary who on admission to the hospital, asked  patients for their "native place" or in other words, their place of birth.  This can be invaluable for those seeking to place their Irish ancestors as it would often name a town or at least a county.

It can often be a surprise to find ancestors admitted to hospital.  How did they afford to pay for their care if there was no free health care? However many hospitals were operated by subscriptions and were known as "free" or "voluntary" hospitals.  They received donations from rich individuals but also charities, churches and many work places and unions operated schemes where workers paid into a fund so that they could receive treatment if they needed it.  The work place contributions were particularly common within industries where there was a certain amount of danger and therefore there was more chance of accidents.

Hospitals were not always  in the immediate area in which your ancestors lived so if your relative died in hospital, you may find it is some distance from their home. This is usually because this was a hospital that was free or perhaps, the one to which their workplace or church subscribed.

It is important if you are going to approach a health archivist to be prepared.  They will need specific information on your ancestor in most cases.

They are not usually able to look for someone without details of when they were in the hospital as the information is not in a nice modern database where they can simply search for someone's name!

Also, think closely about what information you would like to find out.  The archivists will answer your questions but they cannot answer questions that you have not asked!  

If you would like further help or information on discovering heath records then contact us for a no obligation chat at: 

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Great Resource For Scottish Military Information

The media has been full of details about the forthcoming anniversary of the start of World War 1.  There has been discussion about when and how the centenary of World War 1 should be remembered. As genealogists, what we can all agree on however, is the importance of the individual stories of our ancestors and how their lives were affected by the war.

Kin Tree will be looking at a variety of ways at tracing the military careers of our ancestors over the next few months.  Check back on a regular basis for more information as we build up your knowledge. 

A photo of a panel from the
Denny and Dunipace War Memorial
Photographed by the SMRC

Today we are highlighting a particular group, The Scottish Military Research Group (SMRC) who have been carrying out an amazing project to catalogue the names on the war memorials and war graves in Scotland and in many cases with photographs. There are also photos of many war graves across the world, of those associated with the Scottish military. 

The site can give you the added bonus of information about non military relatives also. There are often details of non family members included in the information the group have collated.

SMRG have also photographed many non military headstones where family members have included a dedication to a member of their family who is buried elsewhere and died during military service.  This can give you the unexpected extra detail of where family members are buried that normally can be hard to track down and corroborate even if the correct names are found.

Grave in St Imoges Churchyard,
Marne France
Photographed by SMRC

Unlike many other projects, all the information and images that they collect is freely available to the public and they carry out all this work as volunteers.  As a professional genealogy company, Kin Tree carries out military research on a regular basis and they are the "go to" site for accurate and in depth information.  We have no connection to them but would urge everyone to support their work.

Researching your family's military connections can give you a fascinating insight into your ancestors' lives.  Kin Tree can help you with this research.  contact us for a no obligation, free chat at kintree@ymail.com 

Successfully Tracing And Contacting Relations

Kin Tree is often asked if we can search for descendants as well as ancestors. The answer is yes! 

The research itself is similar to looking for ancestors because what is important is to carry it out in a systematic way and have the knowledge to know where to access the information.

It  is  not  only direct  descendants  that people are interested  in finding but also  2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins  etc. People look for these relations for a variety of reasons. Occasionally it is for medical reasons but mostly it is simply to widen their family circle and find out what happened to other branches of the family.

What sometimes worries people is what reaction they will get to the initial contact that is made.  Most people are welcoming and interested themselves and the worst that is going to happen is that someone says they are not interested or doesn't reply.

The way in which you contact someone is very important.  The best way to get in touch is by mail.  This gives the person the time to think about what you are saying and how they want to respond.  If you phone them then they may be suspicious that you are trying to scam them and could brush you off. 

The important things to remember

• Be specific about why you are getting in touch
• Explain how you obtained their contact details
• Give them multiple ways of contacting you so they can pick the one with which they are comfortable
• Offer to share information with them
• Be patient! Some people don't answer for a while

After you successfully contact and get a response from your relation then it can provide new information for you.  It is often one person in the family who inherits the old photos and documents and they are likely to be a rich source of information.  All great for filling in some blanks in your family tree!

If you would like help to search then please contact us for a no obligation free chat.

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